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Solar flares may have caused cellular network blackouts in the US

Solar flares may have caused cellular network blackouts in the US

A large number of solar flares hit the Earth this Thursday (22). Cellular network outages were observed, but the link between the events was not clear

22 Feb
2024
– 6:57 p.m

(Updated at 7:03 p.m.)

This week, two Sunburn As cellular network outages were reported across the United States, the planet hit. Although users and companies comment that the events are related, scientists believe that this is a coincidence – the country will not be in the affected area during the day. A radio blackout was reported.

Photo: NASA/SDO / Canaltech

The solar event lasted from late last Wednesday (21) to early this Thursday (22) morning, with an X1.8 class explosion on the first day, and another X1.7 class explosion on the second day. Part of the Sun Where do rashes come from? According to the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it exhibits a strong magnetic complex.

Solar discharges are classified into five different groups, each letter representing an order of magnitude. Tenths are the strongest, while M's are ten times smaller, continuing through the letters C, B, and A in this ratio, the latter being too weak to significantly affect Earth. Numbers from 1 to 10 are used to indicate the relative strength of eruptions.

Do Sunlights Affect Cell Phones?

According to NOAA, no Coronal mass ejection were identified in solar flares, but the agency issued a warning on Thursday morning (22) that radio emissions from the sun could occur soon. Solar storms. After the events, several US cell phone operators, such as AT&T, Verizon and reported to T-Mobile Associated Press There are tens of thousands of network outages.

Although the timing of the incident coincides with solar flares, many scientists are skeptical of the link between the two events. US National Solar Observatory's Ryan French X (formerly Twitter) radio waves from the Sun cause decay only in the daylight part of the Earth, which was not present in the US at the time of the event.

The effects of solar flares are expected to be felt for days – NOAA predicted a “flare filament” erupted in the northwest quadrant of the Sun's visible disk on Wednesday (21). Most of the energetic material emitted should pass by Earth as it orbits the Sun, and some of the impact may be felt next Sunday (25).

Solar flares occur when magnetic energy builds up in the Sun's atmosphere until it is released by the star, usually in intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation.

The star's activity is approaching the most active part of its roughly 11-year cycle, which we call “solar maximum“. This can cause many other phenomena, such as communication disruptions and threats to spacecraft and satellites, but this makes the aurora borealis more common.

Source: NOAA 1, Two, NASA with the information that Associated Press

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